^A partitioning of Afghanistan would also greatly increase the difficulty of Pakistan's avowed goal of political, cultural, and logistical connections with the newly independent Central Asian Republics.

[4].It is variously described as being located within South Asia[1][5], Central Asia[6][7], and sometimes Western Asia (or the Middle East).^The Hepthalites (or White Huns) swept out of Central Asia around the fourth century into Bactria and to the south, overwhelming the last of the Kushan and Sassanian kingdoms.

^Afghanistan is completely landlocked, bordered by Iran to the west (925 kilometers), by the Central Asian States of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan to the north and northeast (2,380 kilometers), by China at the easternmost top of the Wakhan Corridor (96 kilometers), and by Pakistan to the east and south (2,432 kilometers).

^These roads connected major cities with the principal border crossings: from Herat to Iran and Turkmenistan in the west; from Kandahar to Pakistan in the south; from Kabul through Jalalabad to Pakistan in the east; from Balkh to Uzbekistan in the north.

Afghanistan has a long history, and has been an ancient focal point of the Silk Road and migration. .It is an important geostrategic location, connecting East, South, West and Central Asia.^The first important frontier dispute was the Panjdeh crisis of 1885, precipitated by Russian encroachment into Central Asia.

.The land has been a target of various invaders, as well as a source from which local powers invaded neighboring regions to form their own empires.^Builders of empires, traders and pilgrims as well as those seeking haven from upheavals in their own societies have come to this land throughout the centuries.

^Denied power and control over Afghanistan's material resources--which are mostly concentrated in the minority regions--the frustrations of Afghanistan's Pushtuns could threaten Pakistan's own stability.

^The area that is now Afghanistan seems in prehistory--as well as ancient and modern times--to have been closely connected by culture and trade with the neighboring regions to the east, west, and north.

^From their capital at Pune, the Marathas, Hindus who controlled much of western and central India, were beginning to look northward to the decaying Mughal empire, which Ahmad Shah now claimed by conquest.

[9].Its capital was shifted in 1776 from Kandahar to Kabul and most of its territories ceded to neighboring empires.^The city of Kabul has drawn members of all ethnic groups in growing numbers since 1776 when it was declared the capital in favor of Kandahar; generations of intermarriages have also taken place.

[10].On August 19, 1919, following the third Anglo-Afghan war, the country regained independence from the United Kingdom over its foreign affairs.^Starting in May 1919 when he won complete independence in the month-long Third Anglo-Afghan War with Britain, Amanullah altered foreign policy in his new relations with external powers and transformed domestic politics with his social, political, and economic reforms.

^Action by the United Nations (UN) Security Council was impossible because the Soviets were armed with veto power, but the UN General Assembly regularly passed resolutions opposing the Soviet occupation.

.The country is being rebuilt slowly with support from the international community and dealing with a strong Taliban insurgency.^The claims were angrily denied by the Afghan leader, who claimed that the international community had not done enough to help his country."

Etymology

Origin of the name

.The first part of the name, "Afghan", is an alternative name for the Pashtuns who are the founders and the largest ethnic group of the country.^Typically, it is men from dominant groups who will seek to marry with females outside their own ethnic group.

.They probably began using the term Afghan as a name for themselves since at least the Islamic period and onwards.^Tragically, on the day the Peshawar parties reached a tentative agreement on how they would establish their Islamic republic, a new war for Kabul began.

.According to W. K. Frazier Tyler, M. C. Gillet and several other scholars "the word Afghan first appears in history in the Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam in 982 AD."Al-Biruni referred to Afghans as various tribes living on the western frontier mountains of the Indus River, which would be the Sulaiman Mountains.^According to The Guardian, "Hamid Ghodse, the INCB's president, said the British-led attempt to persuade Afghan farmers to grow other cash crops had failed.

From a more limited, ethnological point of view, "Afghān" is the term by which the Persian-speakers of Afghanistan (and the non-Paštō-speaking ethnic groups generally) designate the Paštūn.^Many analysts say Pakistan is more critical than Afghanistan to long-term U.S. plans for Central Asia, as NPR's Jackie Northam reports : .

The equation [of] Afghan [and] Paštūn has been propagated all the more, both in and beyond Afghanistan, because the Paštūn tribal confederation is by far the most important in the country, numerically and politically.

It further explains:

The term "Afghān" has probably designated the Paštūn since ancient times. Under the form Avagānā, this ethnic group is first mentioned by the Indian astronomer Varāha Mihira in the beginning of the 6th century CE in his Brihat-samhita.

Pull out your sword and slay any one, that says Pashtun and Afghan are not one!^Stanley McChrystal, would likely be be seen by many Afghans and Pakistanis as a sign that "the U.S. is on the verge of pulling out," Neumann said.

Arabs know this and so do Romans: Afghans are Pashtuns, Pashtuns are Afghans!

.The last part of the name, -stān is an ancient Iranian languages suffix for "place", prominent in many languages of the region.^They speak Indo-Iranian dialects of Nuristani and Dardic called by village and valley names; many are mutually unintelligible from valley to valley.

.The term "Afghanistan", meaning the "Land of Afghans", was mentioned by the 16th century Mughal Emperor Babur in his memoirs, referring to the territories south of Kabul that were inhabited by Pashtuns (called "Afghans" by Babur).^Britain, for its part, would not occupy or annex Afghan territory, or interfere in Afghanistan's internal affairs.

Until the 19th century the name was only used for the traditional lands of the Pashtuns, while the kingdom as a whole was known as the Kingdom of Kabul, as mentioned by the British statesman and historian Mountstuart Elphinstone.[18].Other parts of the country were at certain periods recognized as independent kingdoms, such as the Kingdom of Balkh in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.^In the third century A.D., Kushan control fragmented into semi-independent kingdoms that became easy targets for conquest by the rising Iranian dynasty, the Sassanians (ca.

.With the expansion and centralization of the country, Afghan authorities adopted and extended the name "Afghanistan" to the entire kingdom, after its English translation had already appeared in various treaties between the British Raj and Qajarid Persia, referring to the lands subject to the PashtunBarakzai Dynasty of Kabul.^Which means that training the Afghan army won't be as easy as translating the U.S.'s English-language training materials into the Pasto or Dari anguages spoken in Afghanistan and telling Afghan recruits to study them.

[20] "Afghanistan" as the name for the entire kingdom was mentioned in 1857 by Friedrich Engels.[21].It became the official name when the country was recognized by the world community in 1919, after regaining full independence over its foreign affairs from the British,[22] and was confirmed as such in the nation's 1923 constitution.^The British official said there were some 22,000 hectares of opium poppies in the target area.

Geography

.Afghanistan is landlocked and mountainous, with plains in the north and southwest.^The remaining five--Turkistan Plains, Herat-Farah Lowlands, Sistan Basin-Hilmand Valley, Western Stony Desert, and Southwestern Sandy Desert--comprise deserts and plains "which surround the Mountains in the north, west and southwest."

The climate varies by region and tends to change quite rapidly. .Large parts of the country are dry, and fresh water supplies are limited.^If Afghans in large part come to believe their country is being occupied by Americans, resistance to the U.S. efforts there will grow.

.Afghanistan has a continental climate with very harsh winters in the central highlands, the glacierized northeast (around Nuristan) and the Wakhan Corridor, where the average temperature in January is below −15°C, and hot summers in the low-lying areas of Sistan Basin of the southwest, the Jalalabad basin of the east, and the Turkistan plains along the Amu River of the north, where temperature averages over 35°C in July.^Afghanistan is completely landlocked, bordered by Iran to the west (925 kilometers), by the Central Asian States of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan to the north and northeast (2,380 kilometers), by China at the easternmost top of the Wakhan Corridor (96 kilometers), and by Pakistan to the east and south (2,432 kilometers).

.The country is frequently subject to minor earthquakes, mainly in the northeast of Hindu Kush mountain areas.^"In the winter of 1838, an adventurer, surrounded by native troops and mounted on an elephant, raised the American flag on the summit of the Hindu Kush in the mountainous wilds of Afghanistan.

.Some 125 villages were damaged and 4000 people killed by the May 31, 1998 earthquake.^The death toll continues to rise in Indonesia, where it's thought that more than 1,000 people were killed during yesterday's earthquake off West Sumatra.

.At 249,984 sq mi (647,500 km²), Afghanistan is the world's 41st-largest country (after Burma).^In Badakshan, northern Afghanistan, a maternal mortality rate of 6,500 per 100,000 is the "highest ever recorded in any part of the world", the report says.

^Pakistan is the world's second largest Muslim country, it has the fastest-growing nuclear arsenal in the world today, and it has more terrorists per square kilometer than any other country in the world.

^Afghanistan is completely landlocked, bordered by Iran to the west (925 kilometers), by the Central Asian States of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan to the north and northeast (2,380 kilometers), by China at the easternmost top of the Wakhan Corridor (96 kilometers), and by Pakistan to the east and south (2,432 kilometers).

The country also has uranium, coal, chromite, talc, barites, sulfur, lead, and salt.[1][25][26][27].However, these significant mineral and energy resources remain largely untapped, due to the effects of the Soviet invasion and the subsequent civil war.^The effects of the civil war and Soviet invasion had an impact well beyond Afghanistan's boundaries.

.Though the modern nation state of Afghanistan was founded or created in 1747 by Ahmad Shah Durrani,[9] the land has an ancient history and various timelines of different civilizations.^Ahmad Shah Durrani's Empire, 1762).

.Excavation of prehistoric sites by Louis Dupree, the University of Pennsylvania, the Smithsonian Institution and others suggest that humans were living in what is now Afghanistan at least 50,000 years ago, and that farming communities of the area were among the earliest in the world.^The absence of law enforcement facilities makes these one of the least controlled narcotics trafficking areas in the world.

.Afghanistan is a country at a unique nexus point where numerous Indo-European civilizations have interacted and often fought, and was an important site of early historical activity.^The Afghanistan profile offers brief, summarized information on the countrys historical background, geography, society, economy, transportation and telecommunications, government and politics, and national security.

.The region has been home to various people through the ages, among them the Aryan tribes, such as the Pactyans, Arians, Scythians, Bactrians, and etc.^Ahmad Shah declared an Islamic holy war against the Marathas, and warriors from various Pashtun tribes, as well as other tribes such as the Baloch, answered his call.

.On the other hand, native entities such as Kushans, Saffarids, Ghaznavids, Ghurids, Timurids, Mughals, Hotakis, Durranis and others have risin to power in what is now Afghanistan and invaded the surrounding regions to form empires of their own.^It took Alexander only three years (from about 330-327 B.C.) to subdue the area that is now Afghanistan and the adjacent regions of the former Soviet Union.

^Denied power and control over Afghanistan's material resources--which are mostly concentrated in the minority regions--the frustrations of Afghanistan's Pushtuns could threaten Pakistan's own stability.

.After 2000 BC, waves of Indo-European-speaking Aryans from Central Asia moved south into the area of Afghanistan.^The first important frontier dispute was the Panjdeh crisis of 1885, precipitated by Russian encroachment into Central Asia.

[31].These Indo-Iranians later migrated further south to India, west to what is now Iran, and towards Europe via north of the Caspian.^Large-scale trading, money lending and casual labor opportunities are often more important than herding to the eastern Ghilzai whose caravans once reached deep into India (later Pakistan) as far as what is now Bangladesh, as well as north to Bokhara, east to China, and west to Iran.

^The area that is now Afghanistan seems in prehistory--as well as ancient and modern times--to have been closely connected by culture and trade with the neighboring regions to the east, west, and north.

[33].They set up a nation which became known as Airyānem Vāejah.^In September he set up the National Compromise Commission to contact counterrevolutionaries "in order to complete the Saur Revolution in its new phase."

During the rule of the Parthian, Sasanian and later, it was called Erānshahr (Persian: ايرانشهر – Īrānšahr) meaning "Dominion of the Aryans".

.The ancient Zoroastrianism religion is believed to have originated in what is now Afghanistan between 1800 to 800 BC, as Zoroaster lived and died in Balkh.^They are now displaced in cities inside Afghanistan, living as refugees in Pakistan or resettled abroad.

^The area that is now Afghanistan seems in prehistory--as well as ancient and modern times--to have been closely connected by culture and trade with the neighboring regions to the east, west, and north.

[34][35].Ancient Eastern Iranian languages, such as Avestan, may have been spoken in the region around the time of the rise of Zoroastrianism.^The area that is now Afghanistan seems in prehistory--as well as ancient and modern times--to have been closely connected by culture and trade with the neighboring regions to the east, west, and north.

.By the middle of the sixth century BC, the Achaemenid Persian Empire overthrew the Medes and incorporated Afghanistan (known as ArachosiaAria, and Bactria to the Greeks) within its boundaries.^The area that is present-day Afghanistan comprised several satrapies (provinces) of the Achaemenid Empire when it was at its most extensive, under Darius the Great (ca.

.Alexander the Great entered and conquered Afghanistan in 330 BCE. Following Alexander's brief occupation, the successor state of the Seleucid Empire controlled the area until 305 BCE, when they gave most of the area to the Hindu Maurya Empire as part of an alliance treaty.^They were defeated by Alexander the Great.

^Urban civilization in the Iranian plateau, which includes most of Iran and Afghanistan, may have begun as early as 3000 to 2000 B.C. About the middle of the second millennium B.C. people speaking an Indo-European language may have entered the eastern part of the Iranian Plateau, but little is known about the area until the middle of the first millennium B.C., when its history began to be recorded during the Achaemenid Empire.

.The Mauryans were overthrown in about 185 BCE, leading to the Hellenistic reconquest of Afghanistan by the Greco-Bactrians by 180 BCE. Much of Afghanistan soon broke away from the Greco-Bactrians and became part of the Indo-Greek Kingdom.^Poppy growing for subsistence consumption had been traditional in parts of Afghanistan, but since the late 1980s it became Afghanistan's most valuable commercial export.

The Indo-Greeks were defeated by the Indo-Scythians and expelled from most of Afghanistan by the end of the 2nd century BCE.

.During the first century, the Parthian Empire subjugated Afghanistan, but lost it to their Indo-Parthian vassals.^In the nineteenth century, Afghanistan lay between the expanding might of the Russian and British empires.

.In the mid to late 1st century AD the vast Kushan Empire, centered in modern Afghanistan, became great patrons of Buddhist culture.^In the third century A.D., Kushan control fragmented into semi-independent kingdoms that became easy targets for conquest by the rising Iranian dynasty, the Sassanians (ca.

.The Kushans were defeated by the Sassanids in the third century.^In the third century A.D., Kushan control fragmented into semi-independent kingdoms that became easy targets for conquest by the rising Iranian dynasty, the Sassanians (ca.

.Although various rulers calling themselves Kushanshas (generally known as Indo-Sassanids) continued to rule at least parts of the region, they were probably more or less subject to the Sassanids.^There is general agreement that Daoud had been meeting with what he called various "friends" for more than a year.

[36].The late Kushans were followed by the Kidarite Huns[37] who, in turn, were replaced by the short-lived but powerful Hephthalites, as rulers of the region in the first half of the fifth century.^The Hepthalites (or White Huns) swept out of Central Asia around the fourth century into Bactria and to the south, overwhelming the last of the Kushan and Sassanian kingdoms.

The Hephthalites were defeated by the Sasanian king Khosrau I in AD 557, who re-established Sassanid power in Persia. .However, the successors of Kushans and Hepthalites established a small dynasty in Kabulistan called Kushano-Hephthalites or Kabul-Shahan, who were defeated by the Muslim Arab armies in the 7th century and conquered later by the Ghaznavids.^Nadir Shah conquered Qandahar and Kabul in 1738 along with defeating a great Mughal army in India, plundering Delhi, and massacring thousands of its people.

Islamic conquests and Mongol invasion

Islam arrived to Afghanistan in the 7th century from Khorasan in the west

.In the Middle Ages, upto the 19th century, part of Afghanistan was known as Khorasan.^The report shows that Afghanistan now accounts for 93 per cent of world opium production and is the biggest narcotics producer since 19th-century China.

[39][40].Several important centers of Khorāsān are thus located in modern Afghanistan, such as Balkh, Herat, Ghazni[citation needed] and Kabul[citation needed].^Their membership was recruited from university faculties and from secondary schools in several cities such as Mazar-i-Sharif and Herat.

.It was during the 7th century to the 9th century that Islam was introduced and spread in the area.^The modern educational system was introduced at the end of the nineteenth century by the government which used it as a means to convince traditionalists of the compatibility of Islam with modernization.

.Prior to the arrival of Islam, the area was inhabited by people of multi-religions, which included Zoroastrians, Hindus, Buddhists, possibly Jews, shamanists and others.^Historians accompanying Alexander the Great in the fourth century BC described this group as differing culturally and religiously from other peoples in the area.

.The region of Afghanistan became the center of various important empires, including that of the Samanids (875–999), Ghaznavids (977–1187), Seljukids (1037–1194), Ghurids (1149–1212), Ilkhanate (1225–1335), and Timurids (1370–1506).^An often unacknowledged event that nevertheless played an important role in Afghan history (and in the politics of Afghanistan's neighbors and the entire region up to the present) was the rise in the tenth century of a strong Sunni dynasty--the Ghaznavids.

^The U.S. has sent federal workers from various agencies, including the U.S. AID and the Agriculture Department, to help development efforts in Afghanistan, a critical part of the effort to stabilize the troubled country.

.Among them, the periods of the Ghaznavids and Timurids are considered as some of the most brilliant eras of the region's history.^(Essential Field Guides to Humanitarian and Conflict Zones) "Compiled by some of the region's most experienced journalists ..

.Afghanistan was overrun in 1219 by Genghis Khan and his Mongols army, who devastated much of the land.^In 1220, the Islamic lands of Central Asia were overrun by the armies of the Mongol invader Genghis Khan (ca.

For example, his troops are said to have exterminated or annihilated all living creatures in the ancient Khorāsānian cities of Herat and Balkh.[43].The destruction caused by the Mongols depopulated major cities and caused much of the population to revert to an agrarian rural society.^Less publicized, but equally disruptive, was the displacement of internal populations, from war affected rural areas to cities, and from bombed out cities to rural areas.

[44] Their rule continued with the Ilkhanate, and was extended further following the invasion of Timur (Tamerlane).

.In 1504, Babur, a descendant of both Timur and Genghis Khan, established the Mughal Empire with its capital at Kabul.^From his capital of Samarkand, Timur created an empire that, by the late fourteenth century, extended from India to Turkey.

^Early in the sixteenth century, Babur, who was descended from Timur on his father's side and from Genghis Khan on his mother's, was driven out of his father's kingdom in the Ferghana Valley (which straddles contemporary Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan) by the Shaybani Uzbeks, who had wrested Samarkand from the Timurids.

.By the early 1700s, Afghanistan was controlled by several ruling groups: Uzbeks to the north, Safavid Persians to the west and the remaining larger area by the Mughals or self-ruled by local Afghan tribes.^The Parthians established control in most of what is Iran as early as the middle of the third century B.C.; about 100 years later another Indo-European group from the north--the Kushans (a subgroup of the tribe called the Yuezhi by the Chinese)--entered Afghanistan and established an empire lasting almost four centuries.

.Some Urdu-speaking Muhajir and Indian Muslims claim descent from Pashtun soldiers who settled in India and married local Muslim women during the Muslim conquest in the Indian subcontinent.^From their capital at Pune, the Marathas, Hindus who controlled much of western and central India, were beginning to look northward to the decaying Mughal empire, which Ahmad Shah now claimed by conquest.

Hotaki dynasty

.In 1709, Mir Wais Hotak, a local Afghan (Pashtun) from the Ghilzai clan, overthrew and killed Gurgin Khan, the Safavid governor of Kandahar.^Ahmad Shah began by capturing Ghazni from the Ghilzai Pashtuns, and then wresting Kabul from the local ruler.

.Mir Wais successfully defeated a Safavid army sent for retaliation and held the region of Kandahar until his death in 1715. He was succeeded by his son Mir Mahmud Hotaki.^By the time of his death, Mahmud ruled the entire Hindu Kush region as far east as the Punjab as well as territories far north of the Amu Darya.

In 1722, Mir Mahmud led an Afghan army to Isfahan (Iran), sacked the city and proclaimed himself King of Persia. .However, the great majority still rejected the Afghan regime as usurping, and after the massacre of thousands of civilians in Isfahan by the Afghans – including more than three thousand religious scholars, nobles, and members of the Safavid family – the Hotaki dynasty was eventually removed from power by a new ruler, Nadir Shah of Persia.^Internal objectives of the new Afghan government focused on strengthening the army and shoring up the economy, including transport and communications.

Durrani Empire: beginning of the Afghan state

.In 1738, Nadir Shah and his army, which included Ahmad Khan and four thousand of his Pashtun soldiers of the Abdali tribe,[48] conquered the region of Kandahar from the HotakGhilzais; in the same year he occupied Ghazni, Kabul and Lahore.^Ahmad Shah began by capturing Ghazni from the Ghilzai Pashtuns, and then wresting Kabul from the local ruler.

.On June 19, 1747, Nadir Shah was assassinated by the Persians[49] and Ahmad Shah Abdali called for a loya jirga ("grand assembly") to select a leader among his people.^Nadir Shah conquered Qandahar and Kabul in 1738 along with defeating a great Mughal army in India, plundering Delhi, and massacring thousands of its people.

^Among the many analytical studies of the jihad period since 1978, Asta Olesen in Islam and Politics in Afghanistan provides a clear picture of tribal ideologies and their relationships with ruling authorities since Ahmad Shah Durrani in the eighteenth century.

[1][4][50].After the inauguration, Ahmad Shah adopted the title padshah durr-i dawran ('King, "pearl of the age")[51] and the Abdali tribe became known as the Durrani tribe there after.^Ahmad Shah Durrani's Empire, 1762).

.By 1751, Ahmad Shah Durrani and his Afghan army conquered the entire present-day Afghanistan, Pakistan, Khorasan and Kohistan provinces of Iran, along with Delhi in India.^It's been another deadly day in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

^From their capital at Pune, the Marathas, Hindus who controlled much of western and central India, were beginning to look northward to the decaying Mughal empire, which Ahmad Shah now claimed by conquest.

.Timur died in 1793 and was finally succeeded by his son Zaman Shah Durrani.^After the death of Ahmad Shah's successor, Timur, the three strongest contenders for the position of shah were Timur's sons, the governors of Qandahar, Herat, and Kabul.

^Many Tajik migrated to the cities, especially to Kabul, which was primarily a Tajik town until Timur, the son of Ahmad Shah Durrani, moved his court to Kabul in 1776 and declared it to be the Pushtun capital.

Zaman Shah and his brothers had a weak hold on the legacy left to them by their famous ancestor. .They sorted out their differences through a "round robin of expulsions, blindings and executions", which resulted in the deterioration of the Afghan hold over far-flung territories, such as Attock and Kashmir.^Many Afghans, and Kabulis in particular, believe that these leaders history of abuse makes them unsuitable to hold such positions".

[52].Durrani's other grandson, Shuja Shah Durrani, fled the wrath of his brother and sought refuge with the Sikhs.^This upset the delicate balance of Durrani tribal politics that Ahmad Shah had established and may have prompted Painda Khan and other Durrani chiefs to plot against the shah.

Not only had Durrani and his Afghans invaded the Punjab region many times, but have destroyed the holiest shrine of the Sikhs – the Golden Temple in Amritsar, defiling its sarowar with the blood of cows and then killing Baba Deep Singh in 1757.[53]

.The Sikhs, under Ranjit Singh, rebelled in 1809 and eventually wrest a large part of the Kingdom of Kabul (present day Pakistan, but not including Sindh) from the Afghans.^The Sikhs too, were particularly troublesome, and after several unsuccessful efforts to subdue them, Zeman made the mistake of appointing a forceful young Sikh chief, Ranjit Singh, as his governor in the Punjab.

[54].Hari Singh Nalwa, the Commander-in-Chief of the Sikh Empire along its Afghan frontier, invaded the Afghan territory as far as the city of Jalalabad.^And if new troops are added, they believe it should be along the border with Pakistan, not in Afghan cities in the country's interior.

^The Sikhs too, were particularly troublesome, and after several unsuccessful efforts to subdue them, Zeman made the mistake of appointing a forceful young Sikh chief, Ranjit Singh, as his governor in the Punjab.

.Hari Singh Nalwa's forces held off the Afghan offensive for over a week – the time it took reinforcements to reach Jamrud from Lahore.^They'll be in Afghanistan about five weeks and are set to spend part of the time embedded with U.S. forces in southern Afghanistan.

^From the British point of view, the First Anglo-Afghan War (1838-42) (often called "Auckland's Folly") was an unmitigated disaster, despite the ease with which Dost Mohammad was deposed and Shuja enthroned.

^This created resentment among the dominant Pushtun which hardened over the years, especially after the Qizilbash openly allied themselves with the British during the First Anglo-Afghan War (1838-1842).

William Brydon was the sole survivor of the invading British army of 16,500 soldiers and civilian camp followers.

.During the nineteenth century, following the Anglo-Afghan wars (fought 1839–42, 1878–80, and lastly in 1919) and the ascension of the Barakzai dynasty, Afghanistan saw much of its territory and autonomy ceded to the United Kingdom.^The remainder of the nineteenth century saw greater European involvement in Afghanistan and her surrounding territories and heightened conflict among the ambitious local rulers as Afghanistan's fate played out globally.

.The UK exercised a great deal of influence, and it was not until King Amanullah Khan acceded to the throne in 1919 that Afghanistan re-gained complete independence over its foreign affairs (see "The Great Game").^During the 1920s, Afghanistan established diplomatic relations with most major countries, and Amanullah became king in 1923.

.During the period of British intervention in Afghanistan, ethnic Pashtun territories were divided by the Durand Line.^During the war in Afghanistan, allied forces, particularly British forces, targeted production, storage and transportation facilities for heroin and other drugs that flood European markets.

.This would lead to strained relations between Afghanistan and British India – and later the new state of Pakistan – over what came to be known as the Pashtunistan debate.^The line laid the foundation, not for peace between the border regions, but for heated disagreement between the governments of Afghanistan and British India, and later, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Kingdom of Afghanistan

.King Amanullah Khan moved to end his country's traditional isolation in the years following the Third Anglo-Afghan War.^The Russians advanced steadily southward toward Afghanistan in the three decades after the First Anglo-Afghan War.

.He established diplomatic relations with most major countries and, following a 1927 tour of Europe and Turkey (during which he noted the modernization and secularization advanced by Atatürk), introduced several reforms intended to modernize Afghanistan.^During the 1920s, Afghanistan established diplomatic relations with most major countries, and Amanullah became king in 1923.

^Before final negotiations were concluded in 1921, however, Afghanistan had already begun to establish its own foreign policy, including diplomatic relations with the new government in the Soviet Union in 1919.

.A key force behind these reforms was Mahmud Tarzi, Amanullah's Foreign Minister and father-in-law – and an ardent supporter of the education of women.^However, the foreign aid community would do well to examine carefully their recent aggressive campaign to assure rights for Afghan women in education and employment.

.He fought for Article 68 of Afghanistan's first constitution (declared through a Loya Jirga), which made elementary education compulsory.^Documents section contains: An unofficial translation of the Afghan Constitution; the Afghanistan Compact (roadmap through 2010 with the international community for the nation-building of Afghanistan).

[57].Some of the reforms that were actually put in place, such as the abolition of the traditional Muslimveil for women and the opening of a number of co-educational schools, quickly alienated many tribal and religious leaders.^In many cases freedom of expression among women (for instance on issues concerning women's issues and rights of dressing according to one's choice) remain minimal given the extent of intimidation by armed factions and political or religious leaders.

.Faced with overwhelming armed opposition, Amanullah was forced to abdicate in January 1929 after Kabul fell to forces led by Habibullah Kalakani.^Habibullah fled Kabul, was captured in Kohistan, and executed on November 3, 1929.

.Prince Mohammed Nadir Shah, a cousin of Amanullah's, in turn defeated and killed Habibullah Kalakani in October of the same year, and with considerable Pashtun tribal support he was declared King Nadir Shah.^Nadir Shah conquered Qandahar and Kabul in 1738 along with defeating a great Mughal army in India, plundering Delhi, and massacring thousands of its people.

He began consolidating power and regenerating the country. He abandoned the reforms of Amanullah Khan in favour of a more gradual approach to modernisation. In 1933, however, he was assassinated in a revenge killing by a Kabul student.

.Mohammed Zahir Shah, Nadir Shah's 19-year-old son, succeeded to the throne and reigned from 1933 to 1973. The longest period of stability in Afghanistan was when the country was under the rule of King Zahir Shah.^Zahir Shah, Nadir Shan's son and successor, became Afghanistan's final king.

.In 1946, another of Zahir Shah's uncles, Shah Mahmud Khan, became Prime Minister and began an experiment allowing greater political freedom, but reversed the policy when it went further than he expected.^But the liberalization went farther than the prime minister had intended.

.Daoud sought a closer relationship with the Soviet Union and a more distant one towards Pakistan.^As Gorbachev opened up the country's system, it became more clear that the Soviet Union wished to find a face-saving way to withdraw from Afghanistan.

During this period Afghanistan remained neutral. .It was not a participant in World War II, nor aligned with either power bloc in the Cold War.^The third major policy focus of the immediate post-World War II period was Shah Mahmud's experiment in greater political tolerance and liberalization.

.However, it was a beneficiary of the latter rivalry as both the Soviet Union and the U.S. vied for influence by building such works as hotels and sewer systems.^As Gorbachev opened up the country's system, it became more clear that the Soviet Union wished to find a face-saving way to withdraw from Afghanistan.

A good two lane road was constructed from Iran. .Running through Herat, Kandahar, and Kabul, it ended at the Pakistani border.^The end of the communist regime yielded the discovery of three common graves, at Pol-i-charkhi in the suburbs of Kabul next to the central prison, and in the provinces of Bamyan and Herat.

^These roads connected major cities with the principal border crossings: from Herat to Iran and Turkmenistan in the west; from Kandahar to Pakistan in the south; from Kabul through Jalalabad to Pakistan in the east; from Balkh to Uzbekistan in the north.

Republic of Afghanistan

.In 1973, Zahir Shah's brother-in-law, Mohammed Daoud Khan, launched a bloodless coup and became the first President of Afghanistan while Zahir Shah was on an official overseas visit.^However, the constitutional monarchy that was introduced in 1964 came to an end with the overthrow of King Zahir Shah by the then Prime Minister (later President) Mohammad Daoud in a coup in 1973.

.Mohammed Daoud Khan jammed Afghan radio with anti-Pakistani broadcasts and looked to the Soviet Union and the United States for aid for development.^The United States and the Soviet Union would act as guarantors of the agreement.

.The leaders of PDPA apparently feared that Daoud was planning to exterminate them all, especially since most of them were arrested by the government shortly after.^The divided PDPA succeeded the Daoud regime with a new government under the leadership of Nur Muhammad Taraki of the Khalq faction.

^For the government there was one compensation: Sayyaf, the most consistent ideologue of the party leaders, maintained his alliance with the government in order to pursue his sectarian struggle with the Shias .

.Hafizullah Amin and a number of military wing officers of the PDPA managed to remain at large and organised an uprising.^Few leftists remained in the new parliament, although Karmal and Hafizullah Amin had been elected from districts in and near Kabul.

.The PDPA, led by Nur Mohammad Taraki, Babrak Karmal and Amin overthrew the regime of Mohammad Daoud, who was killed along with his family.^The divided PDPA succeeded the Daoud regime with a new government under the leadership of Nur Muhammad Taraki of the Khalq faction.

.The 1978 Khalq uprising against the government of Daoud Khan was essentially a resurgence by the Ghilzai tribe of the Pashtun against the Durrani (the tribe of Daoud Khan and the previous monarchy).^They not only lost the outlying territories but also alienated other tribes and lineages among the Durrani Pashtuns.

Kabul's Queens Palace before the Soviet invasion, as the headquarters of the PDPA.

.Once in power, the PDPA moved to permit freedom of religion and carried out an ambitious land reform, waiving farmers' debts countrywide.^As the government broke into several factions the issue had become how to carry out a transfer of power.

.They also made a number of statements on women's rights and introduced women to political life.^In numbers of Muslim societies, women may also worship at mosques where they are provided segregated areas, although most prefer to pray at home.

.A prominent example was Anahita Ratebzad, who was a major Marxist leader and a member of the Revolutionary Council.^In 1978, war broke out between the Soviet backed Revolutionary Council and the oppressed Islamic majority.

.Ratebzad wrote the famous May 28, 1978 New Kabul Times editorial which declared: "Privileges which women, by right, must have are equal education, job security, health services, and free time to rear a healthy generation for building the future of the country ...^Last year 13 provinces across the country were declared free of opium cultivation - largely in the relatively secure north.

Educating and enlightening women is now the subject of close government attention."[59]

.Many people in the cities including Kabul either welcomed or were ambivalent to these policies.^"'Unfortunately many of these women who are paid in return for opium debts either end up addicted to the drug or commit suicide.

.However, the secular nature of the government made it unpopular with religiously conservative Afghans in the villages and the countryside, who favoured traditionalist 'Islamic' law.^Qazi , religious judges, are part of the government judicial system responsible for the application of Shariah laws.

^Yet each was a prominent religious leader who exemplified dedication to the jihad and a strong infusion of traditional Islamic values, for example, enforcement of the Sharia , in a post-Marxist government.

.The U.S. saw the situation as a prime opportunity to weaken the Soviet Union.^As prime minister, Daoud had obtained large supplies of modern arms from the Soviet Union and he had been a former army officer himself.

^The Soviet Union, always interested in establishing a cordon sanitaire of subservient or neutral states on its frontiers, was increasingly alarmed at the unstable, unpredictable situation on its southern border.

.As part of a Cold War strategy, in 1979 the United States government (under President Jimmy Carter) began to covertly fund forces ranged against the pro-Soviet government, although warned that this might prompt a Soviet intervention, according to President Carter's National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski.^According to UNAMA report (2003) Community Development Councils (CDCs) have been set up in 34 provinces as a part of the National Solidarity Programme (NSP) aimed towards the promotion of good local governance.

^During this occupation the United States began to covertly and overtly support an opposition to the regime which consisted of Islamist groups, through military and financial aid to fight against the Soviet and Afghan governmental forces.

.Brzezinski described the U.S. activities as the successful setting of a trap that drew the Soviet Union into "its Vietnam War" and brought about the breakup of the Soviet empire.^The 1978 coup d'etat deposed the Mohammadzai and the Soviet-Afghan War introduced political parties which brought new leadership patterns into being, altering tribal structures and reshaping ethnic identities.

.Regarding U.S. support for Islamic fundamentalism, Brzezinski said, "What is most important to the history of the world?^Ghazni, until then an insignificant fort-town, became one of the most brilliant capitals of the Islamic world.

The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?"[60] The Mujahideen belonged to various different factions, but all shared, to varying degrees, a similarly conservative 'Islamic' ideology.

.In March 1979 Hafizullah Amin took over as prime minister, retaining the position of field marshal and becoming vice-president of the Supreme Defence Council.^Massive summary executions regularly took place and when, in September 1979, the President of the time, Nur Mohammed Taraki, was ousted by his deputy, Hafizullah Amin, a list of 12,000 persons who had been executed in prison was posted on the walls of the Ministry of the Interior.

.Amin's tenure as prime minister lasted only a few months.^Taraki became president, prime minister and General Secretary of the PDPA. Parcham's leader, Babrak Karmal, and Amin were named deputy prime ministers.

Soviet invasion and civil war

.In order to bolster the Parcham faction, the Soviet Union – citing the 1978 Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Good Neighborliness that had been signed between the two countries – intervened on December 24, 1979. Over 100,000 Soviet troops took part in the invasion backed by another one hundred thousand and by members of the Parcham faction.^Indeed, the decimation of their members forced the Soviets to insist on reconciliation between the two factions.

^The Soviet invasion resulted in the establishment of a puppet communist regime in Kabul and ushered in years of further conflict which persisted until the Soviet Union withdrew its troops from the country in 1989 following the Geneva Agreement of 1988.

.In response to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and part of its overall Cold War strategy, the United States responded by arming and otherwise supporting the Afghan mujahideen, which had taken up arms against the Soviet occupiers.^Explores the causes of Pakistan's involvement in the Afghanistan war and the United States' support to prevent Soviet adventurism.

^"Modelled on Savak, the Iranian security agency and, like it, trained by the Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA ) and the SDECE, France's external intelligence service, the ISI 'ran' the mujahideen in their decade-long fight against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.

.U.S. support began during the Carter administration, but increased substantially during the Reagan administration, in which it became a centerpiece of the so-called Reagan Doctrine under which the U.S. provided support to anti-communist resistance movements in Afghanistan and also in Angola, Nicaragua, and other nations.^"Contemptuous of nation building and wary of mission creep, the Bush administration entered Afghanistan determined to strike al Qaeda, unseat the Taliban, and then move on, providing only basic humanitarian aid and support for a new Afghan army.

[61].In addition to U.S. support, the mujahideen received support from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and other nations.^At the same time a sharp increase in military support for the mujahidin from the United States and Saudi Arabia allowed it to regain the guerilla war initiative.

.The Soviet occupation resulted in the killings of between 600,000 and two million Afghan civilians.^The flow ebbed and surged in response to Soviet offenses, so that by the fall of 1989, the number of Afghan refugees was estimated at 3.2 million in Pakistan, 2.2.

Faced with mounting international pressure and great number of casualties on both sides, the Soviets withdrew in 1989.

.The Soviet withdrawal from the DRA was seen as an ideological victory in the U.S., which had backed the Mujahideen through three U.S. presidential administrations in order to counter Soviet influence in the vicinity of the oil-rich Persian Gulf.^While Pakistan, the Soviet Union and the DRA haggled over a timetable for the Soviet withdrawal, Cordovez worked on a formula for an Afghan government that would reconcile the combatants.

.Following the removal of the Soviet forces, the U.S. and its allies lost interest in Afghanistan and did little to help rebuild the war-ravaged country or influence events there.^Mr Ghani has described the pledge as very generous, and essential to help rebuild the war-ravaged nation.

^The U.S. has sent federal workers from various agencies, including the U.S. AID and the Agriculture Department, to help development efforts in Afghanistan, a critical part of the effort to stabilize the troubled country.

.November 2009" style="white-space:nowrap;">[citation needed] The USSR continued to support President Mohammad Najibullah (former head of the Afghan secret service, KHAD) until 1992 when the new Russian government refused to sell oil products to the Najibullah regime.^He continued Bhutto's support of the Afghan emigres.

Because of the fighting, a number of elites and intellectuals fled to take refuge abroad. This led to a leadership imbalance in Afghanistan. Fighting continued among the victorious Mujahideen factions, which gave rise to a state of warlordism. .The most serious fighting during this period occurred in 1994, when over 10,000 people were killed in Kabul alone.^The death toll continues to rise in Indonesia, where it's thought that more than 1,000 people were killed during yesterday's earthquake off West Sumatra.

.It was at this time that the Taliban developed as a politico-religious force, eventually seizing Kabul in 1996 and establishing the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.^Tragically, on the day the Peshawar parties reached a tentative agreement on how they would establish their Islamic republic, a new war for Kabul began.

.During the Taliban's seven-year rule, much of the population experienced restrictions on their freedom and violations of their human rights.^Branding the Rabbani government as corrupt and venal as the rest of the Mujahidin leaders, the Taliban claimed the exclusive right to rule.

.Women were banned from jobs, girls forbidden to attend schools or universities.^In areas administered by the Taliban, emphasis is placed on maximizing religious subjects, schools for girls are closed and female teachers are forbidden to teach.

[67].On the ground, American and British special forces along with CIA Special Activities Division teams worked with the Tajik-dominated Northern Alliance to begin a military offensive to overthrow the Taliban.^A British force of about 40,000 fighting men were distributed into military columns which penetrated Afghanistan at three different points.

[68].These attacks led to the fall of Mazar-i-Sharif and then Kabul in November 2001, as the Taliban retreated from most of northern Afghanistan.^If profits fall, these sinister forces have the most to lose.

^It discusses his rise to power, his continued success after becoming the most wanted man in the world, the numerous terrorist attacks to which he was linked before 9/11, and the U.S.-led wars against Afghanistan and Iraq.

.The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was established by the UN Security Council in December 2001 to secure Kabul and the surrounding areas.^Focuses on four areas - the continuing success of the Provincial Reconstruction Teams, the development and expansion of the Afghan National Army, the continuing expansion of the role of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), and the institution-building and coordination efforts of the OEF, ISAF, the Afghan Ministry of Defense, the National Directorate of Security, and police forces in Kabul.

.As more coalition troops entered the war and the Northern Alliance forces fought their way southwards, the Taliban and al-Qaida retreated toward the mountainous Durand Line border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan.^Competing ambitions between Iran, Pakistan and the Central Asian Republics are more likely to escalate toward annexation of contiguous regions of Afghanistan if there is no progress toward national unity.

^Senior White House officials have begun to make the case for a policy shift in Afghanistan that would send few, if any, new combat troops to the country and instead focus on faster military training of Afghan forces, continued assassinations of al-Qaida leaders and support for the government of neighboring Pakistan in its fight against the Taliban.

^On Morning Edition , NPR's Dina Temple-Raston reported that the increased pressure being put on al-Qaida in the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan has spurred the organization to reach out to sympathetic groups in other parts of the the world to carry out attacks for it.

[70] From 2002 onward, the Taliban focused on survival and on rebuilding its forces. .Meanwhile NATO assumed control of ISAF in 2003.[71] From 2003 onwards, the Taliban increased its attacks using insurgency tactics.^Examines Afghanistan's narcotics problem; increases in opium poppy production and price after the fall of the Taliban; and the relationship between drug trafficking, the insurgency, government control of poppy cultivating areas".

^Many analysts have thought that the Taliban were using Pakistan as a safe haven, swinging across the border into Afghanistan to attack U.S. and NATO troops, then retreating across the border into Pakistan where Western troops can't follow them.

^Examines Afghanistan's narcotics problem; increases in opium poppy production and price after the fall of the Taliban; and the relationship between drug trafficking, the insurgency, and government control of poppy cultivating areas.

.Firmly entrenched in the borders between Pakistan and Afghanistan the Taliban enjoyed a resurgence, showing it could launch large, coordinated and effective attacks on coalition and Afghan forces.^It recommends Pakistan's effective engagement with Afghanistan.

^On Morning Edition , NPR's Dina Temple-Raston reported that the increased pressure being put on al-Qaida in the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan has spurred the organization to reach out to sympathetic groups in other parts of the the world to carry out attacks for it.

^Many analysts have thought that the Taliban were using Pakistan as a safe haven, swinging across the border into Afghanistan to attack U.S. and NATO troops, then retreating across the border into Pakistan where Western troops can't follow them.

[72].Over the course of the years, NATO-lead troops lead several offensives against the entrenched Taliban, but proved unable to completely dislodge their presence.^According to the Associated Press, the Pakistani government "blamed militants seeking to avenge an army offensive against al-Qaida and Taliban close to the Afghan border."

.By 2009, a Taliban lead shadow government began to form complete with their own verson of mediation court.^He reacted by attempting to form a government party, and when this failed, he began cracking down.

.On December 1, 2009, U.S. PresidentBarack Obama announced that he would escalate U.S. military involvement by deploying an additional 30,000 soldiers over a period of six months.^It offered a six-month cease-fire and discussions leading to a possible coalition government in which the PDPA would give up its government monopoly.

[74].He also proposed to begin troop withdrawals 18 months from that date.^Gates says that is the month when the administration expects the handover will begin and that the date is not "conditions-based."

^Senior White House officials have begun to make the case for a policy shift in Afghanistan that would send few, if any, new combat troops to the country and instead focus on faster military training of Afghan forces, continued assassinations of al-Qaida leaders and support for the government of neighboring Pakistan in its fight against the Taliban.

[78].Karzai set the framework for dialogue with Taliban leaders when he called on the group's leadership to take part in a "loya jirga" -- or large assembly of elders—to initiate peace talks.^A constitutional Loya Jirga (a type of traditional assembly that consisted a representation of the various ethnic groups within the state) (CLJ) was held within 18 months of the establishment of the ATA, in order to adopt a new constitution.

.Politics in Afghanistan has historically consisted of power struggles, bloody coups and unstable transfers of power.^The complete destruction of the garrison prompted brutal retaliation by the British against the Afghans and touched off yet another power struggle for dominance of Afghanistan.

.With the exception of a military junta, the country has been governed by nearly every system of government over the past century, including a monarchy, republic, theocracy and communist state.^The modern educational system was introduced at the end of the nineteenth century by the government which used it as a means to convince traditionalists of the compatibility of Islam with modernization.

.The constitution ratified by the 2003 Loya jirga restructured the government as an Islamic republic consisting of three branches, executive, legislative and judicial.^A constitutional Loya Jirga (a type of traditional assembly that consisted a representation of the various ethnic groups within the state) (CLJ) was held within 18 months of the establishment of the ATA, in order to adopt a new constitution.

.The nation is currently led by the Karzai administration with Hamid Karzai as the President and leader since December 20, 2001. The current parliament was elected in 2005. Among the elected officials were former mujahadeen, Taliban members, communists, reformists, and Islamic fundamentalists.^Whether the Taliban will return the favor is of course an open question, but the Associated Press says that Afghan President Hamid Karzai has ordered his nation's security forces to observe a cease-fire one week from day when the nation holds its presidential election.

.28% of the delegates elected were women, three points more than the 25% minimum guaranteed under the constitution.^Under Pakistani pressure Rabbani agreed to a cease-fire which brought general peace to the city for more than three months.

.This made Afghanistan, long known under the Taliban for its oppression of women, 30th amongst nations in terms of female representation.^Many analysts say Pakistan is more critical than Afghanistan to long-term U.S. plans for Central Asia, as NPR's Jackie Northam reports : .

[80] Construction for a new parliament building began on August 29, 2005.

.The Supreme Court of Afghanistan is currently led by Chief Justice Abdul Salam Azimi, a former university professor who had been legal advisor to the president.^Burhanuddin Rabbani who served as President of The Islamic State of Afghanistan from 1992-1996 is a Tajik from Badakhshan.

[81].The previous court, appointed during the time of the interim government, had been dominated by fundamentalist religious figures, including Chief Justice Faisal Ahmad Shinwari.^Ahmad Shah's successors governed so ineptly during a period of profound unrest that within fifty years of his death, Afghanistan was embroiled in a civil war.

.The court issued several rulings, such as banning cable television, seeking to ban a candidate in the 2004 presidential election and limiting the rights of women, as well as overstepping its constitutional authority by issuing rulings on subjects not yet brought before the court.^In practice, women are often denied their rightful inheritance, again causing tensions not only within nuclear families, but among kin groups of the wife as well.

.The current court is seen as more moderate and led by more technocrats than the previous court.^Another split, engineered by Yunus Khales, resulted in a second group using the name Hizb-e-Islami--a group that was somewhat more moderate than Hikmatyar's.

.The 2004 Afghan presidential election went relatively smooth in which Hamid Karzai won in the first round with 55.4% of the votes.^Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday made life somewhat easier for President Barack Obama by accepting the results an international review that he received less than 50 percent of the votes in Afghanistan's presidential election, requiring a runoff.

^Whether the Taliban will return the favor is of course an open question, but the Associated Press says that Afghan President Hamid Karzai has ordered his nation's security forces to observe a cease-fire one week from day when the nation holds its presidential election.

[85].Two months later, under U.S. and ally pressure, a second round run-off vote between Karzai and remaining challenger Abdullah was announced for November 7, 2009, but on the 1st of November Abdullah announced that he would no longer be participating in the run-off because his demands for changes in the electoral commission had not been met, and claiming a transparent election would not be possible.^That "sets the stage for a runoff" between President Hamid Karzai and his top challenger because Karzai would no longer have 50% or more of the votes cast.

.A day later, officials of the election commission cancelled the run-off and declared Hamid Karzai as President of Afghanistan for another 5 year term.^"Afghan election commission chairman declares President Hamid Karzai election victor."

.Corruption is many Afghans’ chief grievance against their leaders, pervading nearly all aspects of daily life.^Many Afghans, and Kabulis in particular, believe that these leaders history of abuse makes them unsuitable to hold such positions".

[86].A number of government ministries are believed to be rife with corruption, including Interior, Education and Health.^Additional refinements authorized Hekmatyar to chair a commission governing the Interior ministry, with two commissioners appointed from every province.

They either tolerate widespread malfeasance or have been powerless to stop it.[87].A January 2010 report published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime revealed that bribery consumes an amount equal to 23 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Afghanistan.^The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime released its 2007 Afghanistan Opium Survey in mid-November 2007.

.Afghans are forced by corrupt government culture to pay more than a third of their income in bribes.^They will increase our ability to train competent Afghan Security Forces, and to partner with them so that more Afghans can get into the fight.

.Women in public life in many parts of the country are subject to routine threats and intimidation, according to a December, 2009 report by Human Rights Watch.^In 2009, Afghan citizens had to pay approximately US$ 2,490 million in bribes, which is equivalent to 23 per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), according to the report.

.Several high profile women have been assassinated, but their killers have not been brought to justice.^The party also gave affiliated organizations that enrolled women, youth and city workers high profile exposure in national radio, television, and government publications.

.When Sitara Achakzai, an outspoken and courageous human rights defender and politician, was murdered by the Taliban in April 2009, her death was seen as another warning to all women who are active in public life.^To the Taliban, all past legislation touching upon women and the family threatened to undermine the society's values.

.In the aftermath of the election, Peter Galbraith – a senior UN official in Kabul who was fired after pushing for the UN to reveal the extent of the preparation for fraud before the first vote – wrote that before the election, Karzai was seen as ineffectual and corrupt, and that now he was ineffectual, corrupt and illegitimate.^Abdullah, who was foreign minister in the earlier years following the 2001 toppling of the Taliban, told his supporters today that he was dropping out because President Hamid Karzai refused to fire the top elections official who oversaw the August presidential voting that was marred by massive fraud.

[90].Later that month, the U.S. ambassador in Kabul sent two classified cables to Washington expressing deep concerns about sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan until President Hamid Karzai's government demonstrates that it is willing to tackle the corruption and mismanagement that has fueled the Taliban's rise.^McChrystal has urged that more troops be sent to Afghanistan .

^In advance of Abdullah's announcement, The Washington Post wrote that his withdrawal "could make it more difficult for Obama to send additional U.S. combat troops to Afghanistan if the next government is not accepted by the Afghan electorate as a result."

.In November 2009, Afghanistan slipped three places in Transparency International's annual index of corruption perceptions, becoming the world's second most-corrupt country ahead of Somalia.^During the 1920s, Afghanistan established diplomatic relations with most major countries, and Amanullah became king in 1923.

^It discusses his rise to power, his continued success after becoming the most wanted man in the world, the numerous terrorist attacks to which he was linked before 9/11, and the U.S.-led wars against Afghanistan and Iraq.

.In January 2010, President Karzai reinstated Abdul Rashid Dostum to a high ranking army post despite Western demands for sweeping reform.^Apparently during the post-Soviet civil war, this particular peak was controlled by Abdul Rashid Dostum -- one of the heaviest warlords.

.Dostum is among Afghanistan's most notorious warlords, accused of widespread abuses including the massacre of thousands of Taliban prisoners[94][95], something he denies.^Relations have been soured recently between America and Afghanistan after a US military investigation found that US personnel were responsible for widespread and horrific abuse of prisoners at the Bagram detention centre near Kabul.

Police

.Afghanistan currently has more than 90,000 national police officers, with plans to recruit more so that the total number can reach 160,000. They are being trained by and through the Afghanistan Police Program.^U.S. troops to Afghanistan until the U.S. has trained more Afghan military and police.

^It says less than a quarter of the total aid to Afghanistan currently goes through the Afghan national budget, and also criticises the military forces in Afghanistan for not sourcing goods and products from within Afghanistan.

.In many areas, crimes have gone uninvestigated because of insufficient police or lack of equipment.^Helmand Province police chief Asadullah Sherzad says "because of the remoteness of the area we did not have accurate information in the morning."

^Schools are still without buildings in many areas and sustainability is questionable because of insufficient coordination, underutilized trained teachers, inattention to quality improvement, inadequate teaching materials, monitoring, and evaluation.

.Afghan National Army soldiers have been sent to quell fighting in some regions lacking police protection.^This week in Nimroz, three police officers were killed by a suicide car bomber, and two Afghan soldiers died in attacks in the south.

[96].Many of the police officers are illiterate due to the 30 years of civil unrest in the country.^Ahmad Shah's successors governed so ineptly during a period of profound unrest that within fifty years of his death, Afghanistan was embroiled in a civil war.

Approximately 17 percent of them test positive for illegal drugs. They are widely accused of demanding bribes, which is not surprising to see in most developing countries.[97].Every year many Afghan police officers are killed by militants, and in some cases by NATO forces due to friendly fire incidents.^One of the enduring controversies in the case of Pat Tillman, the former pro football star turned soldier killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan, is whether he should have been posthumously awarded the Silver Star.

.Attempts to build a credible Afghan police force are faltering badly, according to NATO officials, even as they acknowledge that the force will be a crucial piece of the effort to have Afghans manage their own security so American forces can begin leaving.^Explains the continuing OEF coalition efforts of the American forces.

[98] Taliban infiltration is a constant worry; incompetence an even bigger one.[99].A quarter of the officers quit every year, making the Afghan government's goals of substantially building up the police force even harder to achieve.^Internal objectives of the new Afghan government focused on strengthening the army and shoring up the economy, including transport and communications.

.Helmand is the most dangerous place in Afghanistan due to its distance from Kabul as well as the drug trade that flourishes there.^Discusses the inaugural address of President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan laying out his priorities for the next five years - one of which is to stop the growing drug trade.

^Since then, according to the United States Geological Survey, there have been ten earthquakes in Afghanistan which have registered above 6.0; the most severe, both registering at 6.4, occurred in January and July 1991.

.Other turbulent provinces in Afghanistan include Kandahar and Oruzgan, although security in the latter has improved recently due to Dutch and Afghan counter offensives.^Helmand Province, in southern Afghanistan, has been a Taliban stronghold and is where U.S. forces have faced some of the strongest resistance in recent months.

.The Afghan Border Police are responsible for protecing the nation's borders, especially the Durand Line border which is often used by criminals and terrorists.^In response, the Afghan government called a loya jirgah, which promptly declared that it recognized "neither the imaginary Durand nor any similar line" and that all agreements--from the 1893 Durand agreement onward--pertaining to the issue were void.

^Once on the other side, however, they were not allowed back and forth across the border to use British territory as a sanctuary, nor were they allowed to gather together a tribal army on the British side of the Durand Line.

.Women and girls in Afghanistan suffer high levels of violence and discrimination and have poor access to justice and education, Human Rights Watch concluded in a December, 2009 report.^Offers recommendations for donors to assist in human rights, democracy, peace-building, and stability of Afghanistan.

[101].One recent nationwide survey of levels of violence against Afghan women found that 52 percent of respondents experienced physical violence and 17 percent reported sexual violence.^The BBC, quoting "sources" who are familiar with McChrystal's report, says the general now views "protecting the Afghan people against the Taliban as the top priority."

Yet because of social and legal obstacles to accessing justice, few women and girls report violence to the authorities. These barriers are particularly formidable in rape cases.[89]

.The Afghan government rates 121 out of 160 countries in terms of corruption.^BBC News -- "Karzai Vows To Battle Corruption": "Afghan President Hamid Karzai has vowed to remove the 'stigma' of corruption , a day after winning a new five-year term.

[102].In 2009, President Hamid Karzai created two anti-corruption units within the Afghan Interior Ministry at the insistence of the United States, Europe and Iran.^Afghan President Hamid Karzai greets supporters on Friday.

[103].Afghan Interior Minister Hanif Atmar told reporters in Kabul on November 16, 2009 that security officials from the U.S. (FBI), Britain (Scotland Yard) and the European Union (ELOPE) will train prosecutors in the unit.^November 16, 2009 .

Military

.The Afghan National Army currently has about 100,000 soldiers, with plans to increase this number to 260,000 in the coming years.^President Barack Obama plans to tell the nation tonight that he's sending 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan and has asked allies to contribute more soldiers as well because that will "allow us to accelerate handing over responsibility to Afghan forces and allow us to begin the transfer of our forces out of Afghanistan in July of 2011."

It is plagued by inefficiency and endemic corruption.[105] U.S. training efforts have been drastically slowed by the corruption, widespread illiteracy, vanishing supplies, and lack of discipline.[106].U.S. trainers report missing vehicles, weapons and other military equipment, and outright theft of fuel provided by the U.S.[107] Death threats have been leveled against U.S. officers who try to stop Afghan soldiers from stealing.^The BBC, quoting "sources" who are familiar with McChrystal's report, says the general now views "protecting the Afghan people against the Taliban as the top priority."

.Afghan soldiers often find improvised explosive devices and snip the command wires instead of marking them and waiting for U.S. forces to come to detonate them.^The soldiers were training Afghan forces, he said.

The Americans say this just allows the insurgents to return and reconnect them.[107].U.S. trainers frequently must remove the cell phones of Afghan soldiers hours before a mission for fear that the operation will be compromised.^U.S. soldiers stand atop their armored MRAP vehicles before a mission in Afghanistan's Wardak Province.

[108].American trainers often spend large amounts of time verifying that Afghan rosters are accurate – that they are not padded with "ghosts" being "paid" by Afghan commanders who quietly collect the bogus wages.^Most Afghans, Soraya says, are still willing to give the new American president some time.

The Afghan Army has severely limited fighting capacity.[107].Even the best Afghan units lack training, discipline and adequate reinforcements.^Even so, the basic units of mujahidin organization and action continued to reflect the highly segmented nature of Afghan society.

^Just as it had in the 1980s, the United States picked Afghan allies based exclusively on their willingness to get rid of U.S. enemies, rather than on their capacity to bring stability and security to the state."

[107] "They don’t have the basics, so they lay down," said Capt. .Michael Bell, who is one of a team of U.S. and Hungarian mentors tasked with training Afghan soldiers.^The soldiers were training Afghan forces, he said.

"I ran around for an hour trying to get them to shoot, getting fired on. I couldn’t get them to shoot their weapons."[107].In addition, 9 out of 10 soldiers in the Afghan National Army cannot read.^Afghan army recruit Shahidullah Ahmadi can't read -- and neither can nine out of 10 soldiers in the Afghan National Army...

[111].In multiple firefights during the February, 2010 NATO offensive in Helmand Province, many Afghan soldiers did not aim — they pointed their American-issued M-16 rifles in the rough direction of the incoming small-arms fire and pulled their triggers without putting rifle sights to their eyes.^Just as the Taliban have benefited from money produced by the drug trade, so have many officials in the Karzai government, according to American and Afghan officials.

Desertion is a significant problem in the Afghan Army. .One in every four combat soldiers quit the Afghan Army during the 12-month period ending in September, 2009, according to data from the U.S. Defense Department and the Inspector General for Reconstruction in Afghanistan.^U.S. military have died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department.

^Examines warlordism as the principal impediment to Afghanistan and offers a shift in strategy that address the war of ideas, the counternarcotics initiative, and the incorporation of the Afghan National Army into the provincial reconstruction teams.

Provinces

.Afghanistan is administratively divided into thirty-four (34) provinces (welayats), and for each province there is a capital.^Within a week, the Taliban were forced back into Logar and Wardak provinces and the capital was freed from rocketing.

.Each province is then divided into many provincial districts, and each district normally covers a city or several townships.^Afghanistan is still largely a tribal society, divided into many tribes, clans and smaller groups.

.The Governor of the province is appointed by the Ministry of Interior, and the Prefects for the districts of the province will be appointed by the provincial Governor.^Army officers were frequently appointed governors of sensitive provinces.

.The Governor is the representative of the central government of Afghanistan, and is responsible for all administrative and formal issues.^In October British and Soviet governments demanded that Afghanistan expel all nondiplomatic personnel from the Axis nations.

^Both Washington, which had previously earmarked cash for aerial spraying programmes, and the British government, which leads the international counter-narcotics effort in Afghanistan, denied responsibility."

.The provincial Chief of Police is appointed by the Ministry of Interior, who works together with the Governor on law enforcement for all the cities or districts of that province.^Police chiefs, governors and other government officials profit from the trade, Costa said.

.There is an exception in the capital city (Kabul) where the Mayor is selected by the President of Afghanistan, and is completely independent from the prefecture of Kabul Province.^When it comes to Afghanistan and how many troops to have there, how much confidence do you have that the president will make a good decision?

.More than 22 NATO nations deploy thousands of troops in Afghanistan as a part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).^He has been in Kabul, Afghanistan, since NATO took responsibility for the International Security Assistance Force in August 2003.

^Three years after taking responsibility for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), NATO is focusing on three areas: continued ISAF expansion; enhanced assistance to security sector reform efforts, such as the training of Afghan security forces; and perfecting the coordination mechanisms between NATO/ISAF and other international organisations and missions operating in Afghanistan.

.Apart from close military links, Afghanistan also enjoys strong economic relations with NATO members and other allies.^Besides the DEA agents, who weren't identified, the others killed during this particular operation were uniformed members of the U.S. military, according to U.S. officials.

.During the Taliban regime, Pakistan had strong influence in Afghanistan due to close links with most Taliban leaders.^Analyzes the United States' position in Afghanistan, the history of its involvement with Afghanistan and Pakistan back to the Cold War, and the U.S. policy toward the Taliban.

.Though Pakistan maintains strong security and economic links with Afghanistan, dispute between the two countries remain due to Pakistani concerns over growing influence of rival India in Afghanistan and the continuing border dispute over the Durand Line.^He did two tours in Afghanistan, though.

[116].Since 2007, Afghan and Pakistani forces have been involved in a number of border skirmishes.^According to the Associated Press, the Pakistani government "blamed militants seeking to avenge an army offensive against al-Qaida and Taliban close to the Afghan border."

.Relations between the two strained further after Afghan officials alleged that Pakistani intelligence agencies were involved in some terrorist attacks on Afghanistan.^Some of Obama's advisers see a more concerted crackdown by Pakistan on militants on its side of the border as key to turning the tide in Afghanistan, but U.S. intelligence agencies see little correlation, citing the Afghan insurgency's autonomy and increasing home-grown sophistication, officials said...

^The Washington Post -- "In Afghanistan, Taliban Surpasses Al-Qaida": "As violence rises in Afghanistan, the power balance between insurgent groups has shifted, with a weakened al-Qaida relying increasingly on the emboldened Taliban for protection and the manpower to carry out deadly attacks, according to U.S. military and intelligence officials ."

.Afghanistan has strong historical and cultural links with neighboring Iran as both the countries were a part of Greater Persia.^The Ghorids controlled most of what is now Afghanistan, eastern Iran, and Pakistan, while parts of central and western Iran were ruled by the Seljuk Turks.

^The area that is now Afghanistan seems in prehistory--as well as ancient and modern times--to have been closely connected by culture and trade with the neighboring regions to the east, west, and north.

^The U.S. has sent federal workers from various agencies, including the U.S. AID and the Agriculture Department, to help development efforts in Afghanistan, a critical part of the effort to stabilize the troubled country.

.Relations between the two, which had previously soured after the rise of radical Sunni Islamist Taliban regime in Afghanistan, rebounded after the establishment of Hamid Karzai government.^Afghan President Hamid Karzai may have unwittingly shot himself in the foot in his effort to keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan and all because he mistakenly read U.S. intentions.

[119].Iran has also actively participated in Afghan reconstruction efforts.^Educated Afghan women are standing fast in their determination to find ways in which they may participate in the nation's reconstruction according to their interpretations of Islam's tenets.

^Afghanistan is completely landlocked, bordered by Iran to the west (925 kilometers), by the Central Asian States of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan to the north and northeast (2,380 kilometers), by China at the easternmost top of the Wakhan Corridor (96 kilometers), and by Pakistan to the east and south (2,432 kilometers).

India is often regarded as one of Afghanistan's most influential allies.[121].India is the largest regional donor to Afghanistan and has extensively participated in several Afghan reconstruction efforts, including power, agricultural and educational projects.^Afghan President Hamid Karzai may have unwittingly shot himself in the foot in his effort to keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan and all because he mistakenly read U.S. intentions.

^The U.S. has sent federal workers from various agencies, including the U.S. AID and the Agriculture Department, to help development efforts in Afghanistan, a critical part of the effort to stabilize the troubled country.

[122][123].Since 2002, India has extended more than US$1.2 billion in aid to Afghanistan.^Many analysts say Pakistan is more critical than Afghanistan to long-term U.S. plans for Central Asia, as NPR's Jackie Northam reports : .

[124].Strong military ties also exist – Afghan security forces regularly get counter-insurgency training in India[125] and India is also considering the deployment of troops in Afghanistan.^U.S. troops to Afghanistan until the U.S. has trained more Afghan military and police.

^Senior White House officials have begun to make the case for a policy shift in Afghanistan that would send few, if any, new combat troops to the country and instead focus on faster military training of Afghan forces, continued assassinations of al-Qaida leaders and support for the government of neighboring Pakistan in its fight against the Taliban.

Demographics

Population

.A 2009 UN estimate shows that the Afghan population is 28,150,000[2], with about 2.7 million Afghan refugees currently staying in neighoboring Pakistan and Iran.^Estimated population in 1995 was one million.

[127].A partial census conducted in 1979 showed around 13,051,358 people living in the country.^An official census was later hurriedly taken over a three-week period in June 1979 after the establishment of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), with UN assistance.

Largest cities

.The only city in Afghanistan with over one million residents is its capital, Kabul.^About 1.3 million Uzbek live mingled with the Tajik all across the northern plains of Afghanistan, from Faryab Province to Faizabad, capital of Badakhshan Province.

.The other major cities in the country are, in order of population size, Herat, Kandahar, Mazar-e Sharif, Jalalabad, Ghazni and Kunduz.^UNHCR, ICRC and NGO-assisted camps were established in and around Jalalabad in the east, at Pul-i-Khumri, Mazar-i- Sharif and Kunduz in the north, and in Herat in the west.

Urban areas are experiencing rapid population growth following the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 2002.

Ethnic groups

.The population of Afghanistan is divided into a wide variety of ethnic groups.^In short order, the powerful army brought under its control the Turkmen, Uzbek, Tajik, and Hazara tribes of northern Afghanistan (see Ethnic Groups , ch.

.Because a systematic census has not been held in the country in decades, exact figures about the size and composition of the various ethnic groups are not available.^Like a number of other Afghan ethnic groups, the Pushtun extend beyond Afghanistan into Pakistan where they constitute a major ethnic group of about 14 million.

(3) According to a representative survey, named "A survey of the Afghan people – Afghanistan in 2006", a combined project of The Asia Foundation, the Indian Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) and the Afghan Center for Socio-economic and Opinion Research (ACSOR), the distribution of the ethnic groups is:[131]

40.9% Pashtun

37.1% Tajik

9.2% Hazara

9.2% Uzbek

1.7% Turkmen

0.5% Baloch

0.1% Aimak

1.3% other

(4) According to another representative survey, named "Afghanistan: Where Things Stand", a combined effort by the American broadcasting channel ABC News, the British BBC, and the German ARD (from the years 2004 to 2009), and released on February 9, 2009, the ethnic composition of the country is (average numbers):[132]

^Its strenuous effort to impose Pushtu as the working language of government on the Persian- (Dari-) speaking bureaucrats was an indication of the monarchy's anxiety to be identified with Pushtun roots and sentiment.

.The most common languages spoken in Afghanistan are Dari (also known as Eastern Persian; roughly 50%) and Pashto (roughly 35%).^The poetry of the Sufis is considered the best in the Persian language, and among the most notable of all poetic styles.

^Which means that training the Afghan army won't be as easy as translating the U.S.'s English-language training materials into the Pasto or Dari anguages spoken in Afghanistan and telling Afghan recruits to study them.

.According to older numbers in the Encyclopædia Iranica,[133] the Persian language is the most widely used language of the country, spoken by most of the population (although ca.^The poetry of the Sufis is considered the best in the Persian language, and among the most notable of all poetic styles.

25% native), while Pashto is spoken and understood by around 60% of the population (50–55% native). .According to "A survey of the Afghan people – Afghanistan in 2006",[131] Persian is the first language of 49% of the population, while additional 37% speak the language as a second language (combined 86%).^Urban civilization in the Iranian plateau, which includes most of Iran and Afghanistan, may have begun as early as 3000 to 2000 B.C. About the middle of the second millennium B.C. people speaking an Indo-European language may have entered the eastern part of the Iranian Plateau, but little is known about the area until the middle of the first millennium B.C., when its history began to be recorded during the Achaemenid Empire.

Pashto is the first language of 40% of the population, while additional 27% know the language (combined 67%). .Uzbek is spoken or understood by 6% of the population, Turkmen by 3%.^Tajiks make up the second largest ethnic group with 25.3 percent of the population, followed by Hazaras, 18 percent; Uzbeks, 6.3 percent; Turkmen, 2.5 percent; Qizilbash, 1.0; 6.9 percent other.

In the survey "Afghanistan: Where Things Stand" (average numbers from 2005 to 2009), 69% of the interviewed people preferred Persian, while 31% preferred Pashto. .Additionally, 45% of the polled people said that they can read Persian, while 36% said that they can read Pashto.^'The poppy fields have not been destroyed as people said they would be, so those farmers who didn't plant poppies were very sad,' said Nasrullah, another Balkh farmer.

Culture

Girls in Kabul, wearing their traditional clothes, sing at a celebration of International Women's Day in 2002.

.Afghans display pride in their religion, country, ancestry, and above all, their independence.^As had happened in the past, all the Afghan protagonists in the struggle to control their country were beholden to outside forces whose agendas had major implications for the political outcome.

.Like other highlanders, Afghans are regarded with mingled apprehension and condescension, for their high regard for personal honor, for their clan loyalty and for their readiness to carry and use arms to settle disputes.^Like a number of other Afghan ethnic groups, the Pushtun extend beyond Afghanistan into Pakistan where they constitute a major ethnic group of about 14 million.

[134] As clan warfare and internecine feuding has been one of their chief occupations since time immemorial, this individualistic trait has made it difficult for foreign invaders to hold the region.

.Afghanistan has a complex history that has survived either in its current cultures or in the form of various languages and monuments.^Sharing the same plateau, language and a long overlapping history in which Persians/Iranians have had the greater portion of cultural grandeur, the modern relationship has been awkward.

^Despite the virulence of the recent onslaughts, despite current deplorable erosions and perversions, continuity will in the end permit shared sets of values to prevail along with the variations and varieties that constitute the richness of Afghanistan's cultural heritage.

^"Conflict in Afghanistan: A Historical Encyclopedia provides an easy-to-use single reference covering the history of conflict in Afghanistan from 1747, when the state was formed, to the present war against the Taliban."

[135] The two famous statues of Buddha in Bamyan Province were destroyed by the Taliban, who regarded them as idolatrous. .Other famous sites include the cities of Kandahar, Herat, Ghazni and Balkh.^Higher level madrassa located in Herat, Kunduz, Ghazni, Kandahar and Kabul were known as important learning centers.

^These roads connected major cities with the principal border crossings: from Herat to Iran and Turkmenistan in the west; from Kandahar to Pakistan in the south; from Kabul through Jalalabad to Pakistan in the east; from Balkh to Uzbekistan in the north.

Buzkashi is a national sport in Afghanistan. It is similar to polo and played by horsemen in two teams, each trying to grab and hold a goat carcass. .Afghan hounds (a type of running dog) also originated in Afghanistan.^Having developed special relationships with communities inside Afghanistan, its neighbors run the risk of acting as spoilers if Afghans make progress toward political unity.

.Although literacy levels are very low, classic Persian poetry plays a very important role in the Afghan culture.^An often unacknowledged event that nevertheless played an important role in Afghan history (and in the politics of Afghanistan's neighbors and the entire region up to the present) was the rise in the tenth century of a strong Sunni dynasty--the Ghaznavids.

.Poetry has always been one of the major educational pillars in Iran and Afghanistan, to the level that it has integrated itself into culture.^During the Soviet war Iran made a concerted effort to train and support Hazara groups for the purpose of introducing extensions of its own revolution into Afghanistan.

^Many Afghans, perhaps as many as five million, or one-quarter of the country's population, fled to Pakistan and Iran where they organized into guerrilla groups to strike Soviet and government forces inside Afghanistan.

.Persian culture has, and continues to, exert a great influence over Afghan culture.^Of this great Buddhist culture and earlier Zoroastrian influence there remain few, if any, traces in the life of Afghan people today.

Private poetry competition events known as "musha’era" are quite common even among ordinary people. .Almost every homeowner owns one or more poetry collections of some sort, even if they are not read often.^But it will be clear to the Afghan government -- and, more importantly, to the Afghan people -- that they will ultimately be responsible for their own country."

.The eastern dialects of the Persian language are popularly known as "Dari". The name itself derives from "Pārsī-e Darbārī", meaning Persian of the royal courts.^Its strenuous effort to impose Pushtu as the working language of government on the Persian- (Dari-) speaking bureaucrats was an indication of the monarchy's anxiety to be identified with Pushtun roots and sentiment.

.The ancient term Darī – one of the original names of the Persian language – was revived in the Afghan constitution of 1964, and was intended "to signify that Afghans consider their country the cradle of the language.^The poetry of the Sufis is considered the best in the Persian language, and among the most notable of all poetic styles.

^In the spring of 1964, he ordered the convening of a loya jirgah--a country-wide gathering that included members of the National Assembly, the Senate, the Supreme Court, and the constitutional commission.

^Universally acclaimed Afghan Sufi poets include Ansari (eleventh century) and Jami (fifteenth century) of Herat, Sanayi of Ghazni (twelfth century) , and Rumi of Balkh (thirteenth century), the founder of the order of whirling dervishes, whose Mathnawi is considered by many to be the greatest poem ever written in Persian.

.Also, some of the contemporary Persian language poets and writers, who are relatively well-known in Persian-speaking world, include Khalilullah Khalili,[137] Sufi Ghulam Nabi Ashqari,[138] Sarwar Joya, Parwin Pazwak and others.^The poetry of the Sufis is considered the best in the Persian language, and among the most notable of all poetic styles.

^Its strenuous effort to impose Pushtu as the working language of government on the Persian- (Dari-) speaking bureaucrats was an indication of the monarchy's anxiety to be identified with Pushtun roots and sentiment.

.In 2003, Khaled Hosseini published The Kite Runner which though fiction, captured much of the history, politics and culture experienced in Afghanistan from the 1930s to present day.^An often unacknowledged event that nevertheless played an important role in Afghan history (and in the politics of Afghanistan's neighbors and the entire region up to the present) was the rise in the tenth century of a strong Sunni dynasty--the Ghaznavids.

^"Conflict in Afghanistan: A Historical Encyclopedia provides an easy-to-use single reference covering the history of conflict in Afghanistan from 1747, when the state was formed, to the present war against the Taliban."

.In addition to poets and authors, numerous Persian scientists were born or worked in the region of present-day Afghanistan.^Roy convincingly contrasts the social leadership of religious figures in the Persian and Turkish speaking regions of Afghanistan with that of the Pushtuns.

Most notable was Avicenna (Abu Alī Hussein ibn Sīnā) whose father hailed from Balkh. Ibn Sīnā, who travelled to Isfahan later in life to establish a medical school there, is known by some scholars as "the father of modern medicine". George Sarton called ibn Sīnā "the most famous scientist of Islam and one of the most famous of all races, places, and times." His most famous works are The Book of Healing and The Canon of Medicine, also known as the Qanun. .Ibn Sīnā's story even found way to the contemporary English literature through Noah Gordon's The Physician, now published in many languages.^For the first time their languages and literatures were prominently broadcast and published by government media.

.Moreover, according to Ibn al-Nadim, Al-Farabi, a well-known philosopher and scientist, was from Faryab Province in Afghanistan.^The passes of the Paropamisus in the west are relatively low, averaging around 600 meters; the most well-known of these is the Sabzak between Herat and Badghis provinces, which links the western and northwestern parts of Afghanistan.

.Before the Taliban gained power, the city of Kabul was home to many musicians who were masters of both traditional and modern Afghan music, especially during the Nauroz-celebration.^"The picnic of the red flower is a traditional time of celebration for Afghans".

.Kabul in the middle part of the twentieth century has been likened to Vienna during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.^Provides information from the British policy in the nineteenth century to the U.S. policies toward South Asia during the Truman and Eisenhower administrations, and the Soviet-Afghan agreements.

[139].The tribal system, which orders the life of most people outside metropolitan areas, is potent in political terms.^Even in the mid-1990s, there was ample evidence in a number of areas outside the present arenas of conflict to suggest that a return to the old order could occur.

.Men feel a fierce loyalty to their own tribe, such that, if called upon, they would assemble in arms under the tribal chiefs and local clan leaders.^Moving eastward from the area of Herat, the Macedonian leader encountered fierce resistance from local rulers of what had been Iranian satraps.

In theory, under Islamic law, every believer has an obligation to bear arms at the ruler's call.

.Heathcote considers the tribal system to be the best way of organizing large groups of people in a country that is geographically difficult, and in a society that, from a materialistic point of view, has an uncomplicated lifestyle.^As Gorbachev opened up the country's system, it became more clear that the Soviet Union wished to find a face-saving way to withdraw from Afghanistan.

^This count estimated the population to be 13.9 million, including 800,000 nomads, but it is little credited since only 56 percent of the population was enumerated due to mounting resistance in the countryside.

[140].Nomads contribute importantly to the national economy in terms of meat, skins and wool.^Uniquely adapted to the environment, pastoral nomads help maintain the nation's ecosystem and contribute substantially to the national economy.

.Up until the mid-1980s, there were possibly about 50,000 Hindus and Sikhs living in different cities, mostly in Kabul, Kandahar, Jalalabad, and Ghazni.^Hindus and Sikhs live mostly in urban centers throughout Afghanistan.

.There was also a small Jewish community in Afghanistan who immigrated to Israel and the United States by the end of the last century, and only one individual, Zablon Simintov, remains today.^To combat terrorism the United States has initiated three military operations: Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), Operation Noble Eagle (ONE), and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OAF).

.It is an impoverished country, one of the world's poorest and least developed.^The absence of law enforcement facilities makes these one of the least controlled narcotics trafficking areas in the world.

In 2010, 40% of Afghans live below the poverty ine.[145].Two-thirds of the population lives on fewer than 2 US dollars a day.^They are, the men add, "the only two Westerners living permanently in Kandahar without blast walls and intrusive security restrictions to protect us."

Its economy has suffered greatly from the 1979 Soviet invasion and subsequent conflicts, while severe drought added to the nation's difficulties in 1998–2001.[146][147] According to the World Bank, "economic growth has been strong and has generated better livelihoods" since 2001.[148]

.The economically active population in 2002 was about 11 million (out of a total of an estimated 29 million).^Estimated population in 1995 was one million.

As of 2005, the official unemployment rate is at 40%.[149].The number of non-skilled young people is estimated at 3 million, which is likely to increase by some 300,000 per annum.^The flow ebbed and surged in response to Soviet offenses, so that by the fall of 1989, the number of Afghan refugees was estimated at 3.2 million in Pakistan, 2.2.

.The nation's economy began to improve since 2002 due to the infusion of multi-billion US dollars in international assistance and investments, as well as remittances from expats.^He has been in Kabul, Afghanistan, since NATO took responsibility for the International Security Assistance Force in August 2003.

[151].It is also due to dramatic improvements in agricultural production and the end of a four-year drought in most of the country.^Among most settled rural families, women participate in agricultural work only during light harvesting periods, and are responsible for the production of milk products.

.The real value of non-drug GDP increased by 29% in 2002, 16% in 2003, 8% in 2004 and 14% in 2005.[152] As much as one-third of Afghanistan's GDP comes from growing poppy and illicit drugs including opium and its two derivatives, morphine and heroin, as well as hashish production.^Three agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Afghanistan to combat that nation's poppy production which provides much of the world's heroin were among the ten Americans killed when their helicopter crashed following a firefight.

^Examines Afghanistan's narcotics problem; increases in opium poppy production and price after the fall of the Taliban; and the relationship between drug trafficking, the insurgency, government control of poppy cultivating areas".

^Examines Afghanistan's narcotics problem; increases in opium poppy production and price after the fall of the Taliban; and the relationship between drug trafficking, the insurgency, and government control of poppy cultivating areas.

[153].Some 3.3 million Afghans are now involved in producing opium.^Some would say that these conflicts are evidence that Afghan society must now be fragmented between groups identified by religious, ethnic, or regional labels.

[154] In a recent article in the Washington Quarterly, Peter van Ham and Jorrit Kamminga argue that the international community should establish a pilot project and investigate a licensing scheme to start the production of medicines such as morphine and codeine from poppy crops to help it escape the economic dependence on opium.[155]

.According to a 2004 report by the Asian Development Bank, the present reconstruction effort is two-pronged: first it focuses on rebuilding critical physical infrastructure, and second, on building modern public sector institutions from the remnants of Soviet style planning to ones that promote market-led development.^According to UNAMA report (2003) Community Development Councils (CDCs) have been set up in 34 provinces as a part of the National Solidarity Programme (NSP) aimed towards the promotion of good local governance.

^Focuses on four areas - the continuing success of the Provincial Reconstruction Teams, the development and expansion of the Afghan National Army, the continuing expansion of the role of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), and the institution-building and coordination efforts of the OEF, ISAF, the Afghan Ministry of Defense, the National Directorate of Security, and police forces in Kabul.

[150].In 2006, two U.S. companies, Black & Veatch and the Louis Berger Group, have won a US 1.4 billion dollar contract to rebuild roads, power lines and water supply systems of Afghanistan.^Obama also said he wants to make certain that when he sends young Americans to war, and spends billions of taxpayers' dollars to do that, "It's making us safer": .

.One of the main drivers for the current economic recovery is the return of over 5 million Afghan refugees from neighbouring countries, who brought with them fresh energy, entrepreneurship and wealth-creating skills as well as much needed funds to start up businesses.^The flow ebbed and surged in response to Soviet offenses, so that by the fall of 1989, the number of Afghan refugees was estimated at 3.2 million in Pakistan, 2.2.

.What is also helping is the estimated US 2–3 billion dollars in international assistance every year, the partial recovery of the agricultural sector, and the reestablishment of market institutions.^Obama also said he wants to make certain that when he sends young Americans to war, and spends billions of taxpayers' dollars to do that, "It's making us safer": .

Private developments are also beginning to get underway. .In 2006, a Dubai-based Afghan family opened a $25 million Coca Cola bottling plant in Afghanistan.^"The soldier opened fire on the two Italians and one American in a joint Afghan and foreign base," General Khair Mohammad Khawari, a senior officer in western Afghanistan, told Reuters.

.While the country's current account deficit is largely financed with the donor money, only a small portion – about 15% – is provided directly to the government budget.^Mullahs who officiate at mosques are normally appointed by the government after consultation with their communities and, although partially financed by the government, mullahs are largely dependent for their livelihood on community contributions including shelter and a portion of the harvest.

.The rest is provided to non-budgetary expenditure and donor-designated projects through the United Nations system and non-governmental organizations.^Also provides a listing of over 1,900 International Organizations, such as the United Nation's commissions, and a listing of international telephone codes.

.The government had a central budget of only $350 million in 2003 and an estimated $550 million in 2004. The country's foreign exchange reserves totals about $500 million.^The government was heavily dependent upon customs revenues, which fell dramatically; trade suffered; and foreign exchange reserves were seriously depleted.

Revenue is mostly generated through customs, as income and corporate tax bases are negligible.

.Inflation had been a major problem until 2002. However, the depreciation of the Afghani in 2002 after the introduction of the new notes (which replaced 1,000 old Afghani by one new Afghani) coupled with the relative stability compared to previous periods has helped prices to stabilize and even decrease between December 2002 and February 2003, reflecting the turnaround appreciation of the new Afghani currency.^Even when results are known, if no one has 50% or more there will be a runoff between the top two vote-getters on Oct.

Since then, the index has indicated stability, with a moderate increase toward late 2003.[150]

.The Afghan government and international donors seem to remain committed to improving access to basic necessities, infrastructure development, education, housing and economic reform.^The post-coup Soviet government then attempted to develop political relations with the Afghan resistance.

The central government is also focusing on improved revenue collection and public sector expenditure discipline. The rebuilding of the financial sector seems to have been so far successful. Money can now be transferred in and out of the country via official banking channels. .Since 2003, over sixteen new banks have opened in the country, including Afghanistan International Bank, Kabul Bank, Azizi Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, First Micro Finance Bank, and others.^As Gorbachev opened up the country's system, it became more clear that the Soviet Union wished to find a face-saving way to withdraw from Afghanistan.

^The U.S. has sent federal workers from various agencies, including the U.S. AID and the Agriculture Department, to help development efforts in Afghanistan, a critical part of the effort to stabilize the troubled country.

.A new law on private investment provides three to seven-year tax holidays to eligible companies and a four-year exemption from exports tariffs and duties.^Children from age seven attended six years of primary school, three years of middle and three years of secondary school.

.Some private investment projects, backed with national support, are also beginning to pick up steam in Afghanistan.^The story's also been picked up by the liberal Daily Kos and the liberal Brave New Foundation's Rethink Afghanistan .

^School children pile into the back of pick-up truck after classes at their school house which sits in the middle of the future site of a local police training center in Lashkar Gah in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan.

An initial concept design called the City of Light Development, envisioned by Dr. Hisham N. Ashkouri, Principal of ARCADD, Inc. for the development and the implementation of a privately based investment enterprise has been proposed for multi-function commercial, historic and cultural development within the limits of the .Old City of Kabul along the Southern side of the Kabul River and along Jade Meywand Avenue,[158] revitalizing some of the most commercial and historic districts in the City of Kabul, which contains numerous historic mosques and shrines as well as viable commercial activities among war damaged buildings.^As the Afghan-Soviet war became more destructive, internal refugees flocked to Kabul and the largest of the provincial cities.

^Although the seat of the great Mughal Empire he founded was in India, Babur's memoirs stressed his love for Kabul--both as a commercial strategic center as well as a beautiful highland city with an "extremely delightful" climate.

.According to the U.S. Geological Survey and the Afghan Ministry of Mines and Industry, Afghanistan may be possessing up to 36 trillion cubic feet (1,000 km3) of natural gas, 3.6 billion barrels (570,000,000 m3) of petroleum and up to 1,325 million barrels (2.107E+8 m3) of natural gas liquids.^Afghan President Hamid Karzai may have unwittingly shot himself in the foot in his effort to keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan and all because he mistakenly read U.S. intentions.

^Since then, according to the United States Geological Survey, there have been ten earthquakes in Afghanistan which have registered above 6.0; the most severe, both registering at 6.4, occurred in January and July 1991.

.This could mark the turning point in Afghanistan's reconstruction efforts.^He could soon be a hero to those who think the U.S. should begin to wind down its efforts in Afghanistan, which means he could soon be all over the cable news airwaves.

.Energy exports could generate the revenue that Afghan officials need to modernize the country's infrastructure and expand economic opportunities for the beleaguered and fractious population.^We need to ask ourselves at every turn: "will this help the Afghan people take responsibility for their country?"--and where the answer is no, we probably shouldn't be doing it.

[28] Other reports show that the country has huge amounts of gold, copper, coal, iron ore and other minerals.[25][29][159][160].The government of Afghanistan is in the process of extracting and exporting its copper reserves, which will be earning $1.2 billion US dollars in royalties and taxes every year for the next 30 years.^Afghanistan's last 30 difficult years.

Transport

.Ariana Afghan Airlines is the national airlines carrier, with domestic flights between Kabul, Kandahar, Herat and Mazar-e Sharif.^UNHCR, ICRC and NGO-assisted camps were established in and around Jalalabad in the east, at Pul-i-Khumri, Mazar-i- Sharif and Kunduz in the north, and in Herat in the west.

The country has limited rail service with Turkmenistan. .There are two railway projects currently in progress, one is between Herat and the Iranian city Mashad while another is between Kandahar and Quetta in Pakistan.^This remarkable engineering feat completed in 1960 reduced travel time between Kabul and the Pakistan border from two days to a few hours.

^Competing ambitions between Iran, Pakistan and the Central Asian Republics are more likely to escalate toward annexation of contiguous regions of Afghanistan if there is no progress toward national unity.

.Most people who travel from one city to another use bus services.^On the one hand, for instance, a trip outside the center of the city could provide wonderful, first-hand research into the way people live.

Automobiles have recently become more widely available, with Toyota, Nissan and Hyundai dealerships in Kabul. A large number of second-hand vehicles are also arriving from the UAE. Nearly all highways and roads are being rebuilt in the country.

Under the Taliban, television was shut down in 1996, and print media were forbidden to publish commentary, photos or readers letters.[163] The only radio station broadcast religious programmes and propaganda, and aired no music.[163]

.After the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, press restrictions were gradually relaxed and private media diversified.^Focuses on developments made in Afghanistan since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001.

.Freedom of expression and the press is promoted in the 2004 constitution and censorship is banned, though defaming individuals or producing material contrary to the principles of Islam is prohibited.^The constitution also maintains: "No law shall be contrary to the beliefs and practices of Islam".

In 2008, Reporters Without Borders listed the media environment as 156 out of 173, with 1st being most free.[164] 400 publications are now registered and 60 radio stations, a major source of information, currently exist.[165].Foreign radio stations, such as the BBC World Service, also broadcast into the country.^"Contact Reference" lists the head of state, official contacts such as the Ministry of Defence, contacts for foreign embassies located in countries, etc.

Television

Telecommunication services in the country are provided by Afghan Wireless, Etisalat, Roshan, Areeba and Afghan Telecom. .In 2006, the Afghan Ministry of Communications signed a US$64.5 million agreement with ZTE Corporation for the establishment of a countrywide fibre optic cable network.^At this time, Afghan government interest shifted to offers of aid from the Soviet Union and in July 1950 it signed a major agreement with the Soviet Union.

.This will improve telephone, internet, television and radio broadcast services throughout the country.^Links to the American Services Radio and Television Service with audio briefings, the Pentagon Channel, and Defense Visual Information Center--that has multimedia.

[166] Around 500,000 (1.5% of the population) had internet access by the end of 2008.[167]

.Television and radio broadcastings are available in most parts of the country, with local and international channels or stations.^Links to the American Services Radio and Television Service with audio briefings, the Pentagon Channel, and Defense Visual Information Center--that has multimedia.

Education

.As of 2006 more than four million male and female students were enrolled in schools throughout the country.^This reflected the physical destruction caused by the war, the refugee exodus, and the scarcity of teachers, a high proportion of whom, male and female, settled in third countries.

.However, there are still significant obstacles to education in Afghanistan, stemming from lack of funding, unsafe school buildings and cultural norms.^Teacher training, textbook development, supplementary readings, curricula, school supplies and construction are all emphasized by agencies assisting Afghanistan's education sector.

.A lack of women teachers is an issue that concerns some Afghan parents, especially in more conservative areas.^An overview of the cultural traumas experienced by Afghan refugees, especially women, may be found in Disposable People?

.UNICEF estimates that more than 80 percent of females and around 50 percent of males lack access to education centers.^In urban settings 25.9 percent (35.5 percent male; 14.8 percent female) of the population six years old and over were literate, but in rural areas literate accounted for only 8.8.

.According to the United Nations, 700 schools have been closed in the country because of poor security.^Action by the United Nations (UN) Security Council was impossible because the Soviets were armed with veto power, but the UN General Assembly regularly passed resolutions opposing the Soviet occupation.

Literacy of the entire population is estimated at 34%. Female literacy is 10%.[169]

Another aspect of education that is rapidly changing in Afghanistan is the face of higher education. .Following the fall of the Taliban, Kabul University was reopened to both male and female students.^Abdullah Abdullah, Afghanistan's first foreign minister following the fall of the Taliban in late 2001, is the strongest challenger to President Hamid Karzai in their nation's Aug.

.In 2006, the American University of Afghanistan also opened its doors, with the aim of providing a world-class, English-language, co-educational learning environment in Afghanistan.^ET. In his opening statement, Mullen made the case that many of the lessons learned in Iraq -- most notably, that it is critical to provide safety and security to civilians -- can be applied in Afghanistan.

^Three agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Afghanistan to combat that nation's poppy production which provides much of the world's heroin were among the ten Americans killed when their helicopter crashed following a firefight.

The university accepts students from Afghanistan and the neighboring countries. Construction work will soon start at the new site selected for University of Balkh in Mazari Sharif. .The new building for the university, including the building for the Engineering Department, would be constructed at 600 acres (2.4 km²) of land at the cost of 250 million US dollars.^US Fed News Service, Including US State News, 3 p, December 20, 2006.

.Since the 1930s there have been two French lycées (secondary schools) (AEFE contracted school) in Kabul, the Lycée Esteqlal and Lycée Malalaï.^Eight privately contracted security guards at the U.S. embassy in Kabul have been fired following the reports of lewd behavior and sexual misconduct there among their ranks.

Health

.Every half hour, an average of one Afghan woman dies from pregnancy-related complications, another dies of tuberculosis and 14 children die, largely from preventable causes.^Most children die of a variety of infectious and parasitic diseases, including acute diarrhoea, respiratory infections, tuberculosis, diphtheria, poliomyelitis, malaria, measles and malnutrition, in addition to disorders allied to pregnancy and delivery.

.Eight years after the fall of the Taliban, the humanitarian and development needs in Afghanistan remain acute.^Abdullah Abdullah, Afghanistan's first foreign minister following the fall of the Taliban in late 2001, is the strongest challenger to President Hamid Karzai in their nation's Aug.

.According to a November, 2009 UNICEF report, Afghanistan is now the most dangerous place in the world for a child to be born.^Through mid-1995 these local arrangements have generally remained in place in most of Afghanistan.

^Since then, according to the United States Geological Survey, there have been ten earthquakes in Afghanistan which have registered above 6.0; the most severe, both registering at 6.4, occurred in January and July 1991.

[172].Afghanistan has the highest infant mortality rate in the world – 257 deaths per 1,000 live births – and 70 percent of the population lacks access to clean water.^Afghanistan in 1996 had the highest illiteracy rate in Asia, for both men and women.

The Afghan government has ambitious plans to cut the infant mortality rate to 400 from 1,600 for every 100,000 live births by 2020.[175]

.Before the start of the Afghan wars in 1978, Afghanistan had an improving health care system and a semi-modernized health care system in cities like Kabul.^The Russians advanced steadily southward toward Afghanistan in the three decades after the First Anglo-Afghan War.

.Ibn Sina Hospital in Kabul and Ali Abad Hospital in Kabul were two of the leading health institutions in Central Asia at the time.^This remarkable engineering feat completed in 1960 reduced travel time between Kabul and the Pakistan border from two days to a few hours.

[175].Following the Soviet invasion and the civil war that followed, the health care system was limited only to urban areas and was eventually destroyed.^Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 .

.The Taliban made some improvements, but health care was not available for women during their six year rule.^Politico -- "White House Will Change E-mail rules": "The White House said Sunday night that it will change its e-mail sign-up procedures after some recipients of a health-care e-mail complained that they had not asked to receive updates."

[175].Following the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 2002, the health system began to improve dramatically in Afghanistan due to international aid and all institutions accepted women for the first time since 1996. Non-governmental charities such as Mahboba's promise assist orphans in association with governmental structures.^He has been in Kabul, Afghanistan, since NATO took responsibility for the International Security Assistance Force in August 2003.

^When the Taliban gained control of Kabul in September 1996 and established what they regarded as an Islamic form of government, their hard-core policies that adversely affected the rights of minorities and women.

[178] This is one of the highest percentages anywhere in the world.[179]

.According to the Human Development Index Afghanistan is the second least developed country in the world.^And what he does in Afghanistan will define his first term, at least, and may decide whether he gets a second term.

^The U.S. has sent federal workers from various agencies, including the U.S. AID and the Agriculture Department, to help development efforts in Afghanistan, a critical part of the effort to stabilize the troubled country.

^ fghan Interior Minister Hanif Atmar told reporters in Kabul Monday that security officials from the U.S. (FBI), Britain (Scotland Yard) and the European Union (ELOPE) will train prosecutors in the unit.

^ ab"A survey of the Afghan people – Afghanistan in 2006", The Asia Foundation, technical assistance by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS; India) and Afghan Center for Socio-economic and Opinion Research (ACSOR), Kabul, 2006, PDF.

^Chapter 2, The Society and Its Environment, completed in 1997 by Nancy Hatch Dupree and Thomas E. Gouttierre, describes the Afghan natural and social environment, and includes, among other subjects, discussion of ethnic groups, religion, education, health, and the country's refugee problem.

Griffiths, John C. 1981. Afghanistan: A History of Conflict.^As NPR's Kevin Whitelaw puts it , the president "assumed full political ownership of the conflict in Afghanistan" and all that comes with it.

Moorcroft, William and Trebeck, George. 1841. Travels in the Himalayan Provinces of Hindustan and the Panjab; in Ladakh and Kashmir, in Peshawar, Kabul, Kunduz, and Bokhara... from 1819 to 1825, Vol. .II. Reprint: New Delhi, Sagar Publications, 1971. Oxford University Press, 1979, ISBN 0-19-577199-0.

.(1979) The Kirghiz and Wakhi of Afghanistan: Adaptation to Closed Frontiers and War.^Archaeological exploration began in Afghanistan in earnest after World War II and proceeded promisingly until the Soviet invasion disrupted it in December of 1979.

Wood, John. 1872. A Journey to the Source of the River Oxus. New Edition, edited by his son, with an essay on the "Geography of the Valley of the Oxus" by Henry Yule. John Murray, London. Gregg Division McGraw-Hill, 1971, ISBN 0-576-03322-7.